Tuesday, April 15, 2008

breathe, move, tear, sketch. a habit.

Sketches.

inspiration.

drawings done by the light of the scanner.Here is what is in my brain right now.

As I have mentioned in the past, I LOVE podcasts. One of my favorite shows is CraftCast with Allison Lee. She has such a wonderful way with her guests, and really gets to the heart of the creative process with people from a broad array of creative endeavors. She interviewed her son Erich Bergen (he's an actor in the show Jersey Boys) on the show a few weeks back, and he talked about Twyla Tharp's wonderful book, The Creative Habit. Essentially, TCH reminds readers that channeling divine inspiration is only possible when you lay all of the ground-work. Part of the ground-work is the daily routine. Tharp's daily routine consists of starting each day with two hours of training at the gym. Without the routine, the magic can't happen-- and this is true for whatever you do in life. Without a daily practice, the soul of the work is just not there. Sure, you can still play the notes in a piece of music or make your sales pitch or whatever, but the spark-- that bit that makes what you do your life's purpose rather than just a job or a hobby or what-evs-- won't be there with you. For me, if I don't get my practice in, everything suffers. In recent weeks, I have written about how crazy busy I've been for the last month with one of my gigs and how that has affected me creatively. Last Tuesday, I recommitted myself to my creative habit, and I'll share it with you now. This is literally what it takes.

Movement first thing in the morning-- a walk everyday, strength training 2-3 times a week.Tea.Meditation followed by a bit of yoga.Journal-work. (I write 10 things that inspire me right now or tear 10 images from magazines that express something that grabs me.)Another bit of movement around 3-- a run or bike ride followed by yoga or just yoga.